The 3D Printed Sundial

Imagine a sundial that casts not only a shadow but digital time too. That's right. This is the most recent project by Julldozer of Mojoptix. 3D printing was essential to the success of the project because he had to create a numbered matrix of holes, which he calls swiss cheese, that would cast the right light at the right time so people could read the numbers. Julldozer provides us with all of his files and script on Thingiverse, and he also has a YouTube video describing the whole project. Quite a modern twist on an ancient technology, to be sure. Read more at 3DPrint.com: http://3dprint.com/103289/open-source-3d-print-sundial/
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/sun1.png

Discussed this on Hackaday. I think that with careful design you could make it tell you the date. The clock adds no information but a date dot on a drawn date line would.

Discuss. :)

So you're stuck on a deserted island... Survivor style. You would like to keep track of the time and possible also the date. All you need to do now is get out your 3D printer... oh wait...

;)

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Originally Posted by Sebastian Finke

So you're stuck on a deserted island... All you need to do now is get out your 3D printer... oh wait... ;)

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Agreed. However I find the high/low tech mix concept appealing. And the ingenuity of the design cannot be denied (I seriously thought of a joke at 1st).

Now, to find a few hours in the upcoming evenings to actually make one...

Practicality. Zero. Uniqueness and ingenuity? Off the chart!

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Originally Posted by LambdaFF

Agreed. However I find the high/low tech mix concept appealing. And the ingenuity of the design cannot be denied (I seriously thought of a joke at 1st).

Now, to find a few hours in the upcoming evenings to actually make one...

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Just in time for gray sunless days of winter ;)

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Originally Posted by Wolfie

Just in time for gray sunless days of winter ;)

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Meh. I live in the riviera. It's always sunny here ;-)

God, it must be nice ;) Up here we have 9mo of winter followed by 3mo of joyous road repair. You can tell winter is here when you can't see the orange barrels anymore (buried in snow). Spring arrives with wondrous chirps from backhoe backup alarms and the return of the orange barrels on the freeways.

Finally got around to it. Wow.
Better have your retraction settings straight though otherwise the little hairs would be hard to remove. Someone posted a "cleaned" version on thingiverse that removed unnecessary stuff. I tried that one.
Attachment 7928
@ Wolfie, as you can see the sun is not an issue. ;-)

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Originally Posted by LambdaFF

Better have your retraction settings straight though otherwise the little hairs would be hard to remove. Someone posted a "cleaned" version on thingiverse that removed unnecessary stuff. I tried that one.

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At least for me... It doesn't seem like the retraction settings are that important. For me, I had to reduce the 1st layer output to 90% to keep the little slots at full size and from filling in.